Farmers in tractors blocked roads, threw potatoes and eggs, and set off fireworks in Brussels on Wednesday outside a European Union leaders' summit, prompting police to respond with tear gas and water cannons as protesters rallied against a major free-trade deal with South American nations.

Farmers fear that the deal will undercut their livelihoods, and there are broader political concerns that it could also help drive support for the far right.

France's president warned Thursday that Paris would not support the EU's trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur without stronger safeguards for its farmers, as leaders gathered for summit talks in Brussels.

"I want to tell our farmers, who have been making France's position clear all along: we consider that we are not there yet, and the deal cannot be signed" as it currently stands, President Emmanuel Macron told reporters, vowing France would oppose any "attempt to force this through".

Belgium insisted on Thursday that its European Union partners must provide ironclad guarantees that it will be protected from Russian retaliation before it would back a massive loan for Ukraine.

At a high-stakes EU summit in Brussels, the 27-nation bloc's leaders are set to decide on whether to use tens of billions of euros in frozen Russian assets to underwrite a loan to meet Ukraine's military and financial needs over the next two years.

Warner Bros. is telling shareholders of the company that it believes a $72 billion buyout offer from Netflix is superior, and to reject a hostile takeover bid from Paramount Skydance.

Paramount went hostile with its bid last week, asking shareholders to reject the deal with Netflix favored by the board of Warner Bros.

India has accelerated a push to finalize several free trade agreements over the next few months to offset the impact of steep U.S. import tariffs and widen export destinations during growing global trade uncertainties.

New Delhi is in advanced talks with the European Union, New Zealand and Chile and this week is set to sign its first agreement under the renewed push with Oman, according to Indian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity as the details are not yet public.

U.S. President Donald Trump said America was "poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen" next year, as he defended his policies in an address to the nation Wednesday.

Claiming he was fixing a "mess" left by his predecessor Joe Biden 11 months ago, Trump said in his speech from the White House that "our country is back, stronger than ever before."

Oil prices surged on Wednesday after US President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of "sanctioned" oil tankers heading to and leaving Venezuela.

Venezuela struck a defiant note Wednesday, insisting that crude oil exports were not impacted by US President Donald Trump's announcement of a blockade.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is ordering a blockade of all "sanctioned oil tankers" into Venezuela, ramping up pressure on the country's authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro in a move that seemed designed to put a tighter chokehold on the South American country's economy.

Trump's escalation comes after U.S. forces last week seized an oil tanker off Venezuela's coast, an unusual move that followed a buildup of military forces in the region. In a post on social media Tuesday night announcing the blockade, Trump alleged Venezuela was using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes and vowed to continue the military buildup until the country gave the U.S. oil, land and assets, though it was not clear why he felt the U.S. had a claim.

On a recent December day, Mark Latino and a handful of his workers spun sheets of vinyl into tinsel for Christmas tree branches. They worked on a custom-made machine that's nearly a century old, churning out strands of bright silver tinsel along its 35-foot (10-meter) length.